Two chefs and a front-of-house in your kitchen, a seasonal three courses, and no washing up. Most of our dinner parties are between eight and twenty people, in the client’s own house, between October and March.

Canapés — hot

• Wild Mushroom Tartlet, Sea Salt, English Truffle Oil (v)
• Buttermilk Chicken Pops, Mustard Mayonnaise

Canapés — cold

• Beetroot Blini, Sea Trout, Dill Sauce
• Parmesan Shortbread, Creamed Goats Cheese, Red Onion Jam (v)

Spring and summer

Starter — English Asparagus Soldiers, Crispy Duck Egg, Baby Leaves with a Mustard Dressing

Main — Rack of Lamb, Wilted Spinach, Pomme Anna, Red Wine Jus

Dessert — Classic Eton Mess: melt-in-the-mouth meringue, whipped cream and English berries

Autumn and winter

Starter — Pan Seared Scallops, Crispy Prosciutto, Butternut Squash Puree

Main — Venison Loin, Roast Celeriac and Braised Red Cabbage

Dessert — Spiced Poached Pear, Hot Chocolate Sauce, Vanilla Ice Cream

How it works

We arrive well before you sit down, cook in your kitchen, serve, clear, and leave it cleaner than we found it. You need an oven, a hob and a sink. We bring everything else.

Allergens

All fourteen declared allergens are listed against each dish on request, and we ask for every dietary requirement in writing before the tasting. Our kitchen handles nuts, gluten, dairy, egg, fish, shellfish, soya, celery, mustard, sesame, lupin, molluscs and sulphites, so we cannot guarantee any dish is free from traces. (gf) gluten free · (gfo) gluten free on request · (v) vegetarian · (ve) vegan · (vo) vegetarian on request Reeves Events holds a 5-star food hygiene rating.

What actually happens on the night

Two chefs arrive with the food prepared to the point where finishing it takes minutes rather than hours. The kitchen is used properly and left as it was found. Nobody is opening cupboards looking for a colander at eight o’clock.

How visible we are is your decision and it is worth making it early. Some clients want the kitchen door shut and the food to appear; others want a chef who comes out between courses and talks about what people are eating. Both work. What does not work is deciding halfway through the evening.

We wash up. That is not a small detail — it is the single most common reason people book this rather than cooking themselves, and it is included rather than an extra.

Numbers, and the shape of the table

Between six and about sixteen is where a dinner party at home genuinely works. Below six it is often better value to eat out. Above sixteen most home kitchens run out of oven and most dining rooms run out of table, at which point it becomes a different job — usually a sharing table or a buffet, and we would tell you so rather than take the booking and struggle.

Courses matter more at this scale than at a wedding. Four courses for eight people is a long, slow, generous evening. Four courses for sixteen is a lot of clearing. If the point of the night is the conversation, three courses and a longer gap between them is usually the better call.

Your kitchen, honestly assessed

We do not need a professional kitchen and we very rarely find one. A domestic oven, a hob and a sink is enough for most of these menus, which is why they are written the way they are.

What genuinely helps: knowing in advance whether the oven is fan or conventional, whether there is a second oven, and how much fridge space we can have on the day. What genuinely does not matter: how tidy it is.

If the kitchen is being renovated, or there isn’t one, we can still do it — we bring kitchens to fields for a living. Just tell us early.

Wine, and what we do not do

We do not sell you wine. You choose it, you buy it, and we will happily tell you what would go with the menu if you ask. Most caterers make a margin here and we would rather make the food better.

Related: private dining at home for how the service works, and milestone birthdays if it is a celebration rather than a dinner.

Seasonality is not a slogan here

At eight or ten people a menu can follow the month properly in a way that a wedding for a hundred and fifty cannot. There is no need to choose a dish in March that also has to work in October, and no need to pick something that scales.

That is the real luxury of private dining: in February you can have the braises and the game and the puddings that take three hours, and in June you can have almost nothing done to very good ingredients. A dinner party menu that reads the same in both months has missed the opportunity.

Telling us about the table

Useful to know in advance: whether anybody is a nervous eater, whether there is a fussy child, and whether the point of the evening is the food or the conversation. Those three answers change more than any dietary requirement does.

Allergies we need in writing with names against them, as everywhere. But at this size we can genuinely cook around a preference rather than working around it, which is not true at scale.